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Weekly News 17 2 2011
Weekly Soccer News, February 17, 2011
Four Of Clubs
Aston Villa's big money transfer window acquisition, Darren Bent, won his eighth cap and scored his second international goal in the 2-1 win over Denmark last week. Bent's eight caps have been spread over six years and four different clubs (Charlton, Spurs, Sunderland & Villa).
However, West Ham fulcrum, Scott Parker, can top that. He won his first cap in 2003 and his latest appearance, also in the Denmark game, was his fourth cap coming with four different clubs (Charlton, Chelsea, Newcastle & West Ham) over the eight year period.
Mad as Hatters
Stockport County are having a season to forget and are in grave danger of dropping out of the football league. The Danny Bergara years of promotions and Wembley are a distant memory and a look at the league table is a worrying site indeed if you are a Hatter.
On the face of it County look to be in touch with those above but Macclesfield, a point above have played four games less, and Burton Albion have a whopping EIGHT games in hand. Every team above County have games to spare and even Barnet who sit bottom, two points adrift, have one game in hand and can nip in front should they win it.
Face/Off
Premier League and FA bosses are doing all they can to ease fixture congestion and try to avoid a potential Title Double Header in May between Manchester United and Chelsea. Cup results over the next couple of weeks could mean the two giants facing off in two league games in a week of May. However, it seems that Chelsea might have found a solution to the problem for the big wigs by putting themselves out of the title race before May even arrives.
Ronaldo Salute
Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, one of Pele's greatest 100 players, has retired from football and El Gordo deserves a salute. I was at the 2003 Champions League quarter final and happily clapped him off following a high class hat-trick in a game that Real Madrid lost 4-3 to a Beckham inspired United. Real progressed courtesy of the 3-1 first leg result and Ronaldo's brilliant treble but Champions League success evaded the Brazilian in the Galacticos era. It is the single blemish on a glittering CV that will stand the test of time.
Ronaldo drifts towards A1 Motorsport ownership with a peerless record of 352 goals in 515 club appearances (at Cruzeiro, PSV, Barcelona, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, AC Milan & Corinthians), and 68 goals in 105 Brazil appearances. He retires with an astounding average of 0.7 goals per game.
He's a double FIFA World Cup & Copa America champion, UEFA Cup, Cup Winners Cup & double La Liga winner. He's won cups in Brazil, Holland, Italy and Spain and helped Corinthians to the double in 2009 with 23 goals and best player award.
He's been top scorer, player of the year or tournament MVP in just about every league or cup he's competed in. He's won the FIFA World Player of the Year a record three times (only Zinedine Zidane has matched this), the Balon d'Or twice. He's also scored a record 15 World Cup goals at three different finals, winning the Golden Boot in 2002 when he scored two in the final.
At 34 the injuries have finally take their toll and it is frightening to think what his record could have been had serious knee problems at Inter not stumped his progression. He was named Serie A's Player of the Decade 1997-2007 and his nickname there is Il Fenomeno for good reason.
I advise having a look on YouTube where a search for Ronaldo will avail some of the greatest individual goals you are ever likely to see. This is the legacy Il Fenomeno leaves behind. Ronaldo, we salute you.
Tino's Best
Colombian enigma Tino Asprilla, who helped Newcastle to spectacular implosion in the 1996 Premier League title race ("love it!"), popped up in MOTD commentary last weekend. I'm pretty sure I heard right that he now owns a Colombian second division side called Club Atletico Faustino Asprilla! There's currently little to corroborate this story on the interweb but it sounds a likely extension of a colourful career.
Sexy Roubles
Speaking of strange club allegiances, Ruud Gullit, he of the "sheckshy football" philosophy, has taken the reins at Chechnya side Terek Grozny. Terek Grozny - who are they? Exactly!
The former Dutch midfield maestro has swapped the comfort of Sky Sports' studios for a recently war-torn country and a club who finished 12 th of 16 Russian top flight teams last season. He will be working for Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed Chechnya president and former rebel fighter who rules with an iron fist and is constantly rebuking human rights accusations.
"Life is full of surprises," said 48-year-old Gullit. "I have a couple of tapes of some Terek matches. But I have only managed to watch segments from a few of their games," he told Sovetsky Sport.
It will be a major surprise should the promised Champions League football materialise and he sees out his 18 month contract. The football world is stunned at Gullit taking this job but I'm sure the word ‘roubles' isn't far from the explanation.
Time is a Scarce Commodity
Roberto Di Matteo has been sacked by West Brom whose owners join the ranks of football's delusional. Just where the board expect the club to be is anybody's guess. The Italian had made a good start to his management career gaining promotion last year and starting this season tremendously well.
A recent bad run has sealed his fate with the club statement saying Premier League survival is essential. Time is no longer a commodity that Premier League managers deal in. I can't think of a single available manager better placed to guarantee this survival and it is staggering how quickly things are forgotten in football.
The promotion to the Premier League that Di Matteo masterminded has guaranteed West Brom £48m in parachute payments alone. Add in money that will be earned in the guaranteed one year stay and the minimum the club will earn is around £90m.
It is fair to say that this makes staying up paramount but once again the manager who got them there has not been given a fair crack at the whip in the attempt to continue feasting at the top table. Di Matteo's career will recover itself, West Brom's season may not.
Footballer Splicing?
Wales lost a Nations Cup matches to Ireland last week and one name in the Welsh team jumped out at me – that of Hal Robson-Kanu who was winning his second senior cap. The 21 year old Reading forward takes the double barrel name of a couple of more famous ones and it got me thinking about the future possibility of Footballer Splicing.
If you could splice England & Manchester United battle horse Bryan Robson with languid Nigerian forward Nwankwo Kanu you might well have the perfect footballer. The combination of Robbo's tenacity, strength and desire to win with Kanu's silky, effortless skill is a match made in heaven.
What other perfect player combinations could we have if splicing were possible? How about…
Moore-Scholes – the complete midfielder who can actually tackle.
Johnson-Neville – a supremely talented right back with fierce hunger & application.
Lineker-Barton – a goal-scoring midfielder with an acceptable disciplinary record.
Lombardo-Fellaini – a skilful attacker with a sensible haircut.
Gilchrist-Green – cricket/football crossover producing an English keeper who can catch.
Dickov-Kuntz – erm, maybe not
On the subject of amusing names, I'm reminded of German coach, Wolfgang Wolf, who was once the manager of…Wolfsburg. When Wolf left the club a much more sensible name took over the manager duties - Peter Pander.
Compiled by Lee Bennett
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